One should always have a gun on hand.

[chaparrito]

Coyotes are intelligent and resourceful, opportunistic predators. They quickly become desensitized to the potential threat posed by humans. We have an abundance of them around here but I firmly believe that taking a few of them from time to time helps keep the others at bay, at least a bit.
Good fences are key with coyotes most of the time. It's rare they'll dig under a fence, not worth the trouble. In all my years here I've only had it happen once during lambing and kidding season. He was an old one and probably starving from the looks of him, bad teeth, rough coat, all hide and bone. Couldn't resist the scent of newborns. I got him halfway under the fence, the does had set off their warning snorts and I fortunately heard them.

 

[elm_creek_smith]

wow . . . . . .

I would agree that the coyote was innocent in that what it was doing was not out of malice, just as enemy soldiers, for the most part, were free from malice in doing their duty to try to kill me. "nnocent" doesn't mean that I wouldn't try to kill them before they killed me.

Coyotes are at their best when they are kept in check and in fear of man. A neighbor lost 5 golden retriever pups and had to have their 5 year old mother put down after coyotes got into his yard. After about two weeks, the songdogs stopped coming near the yards. It only took about three dead coyotes for them to figure out it wasn't a safe place to be "innocent."

 

[redlevel]

Unlike most other mammalian predators, coyote eradication efforts are largely futile. In fact, while wolves, the large bears, and the larger cats were almost extinguished by the eradication efforts beginning in earnest early in the 20th century, coyotes have thrived on every such effort aimed at them.

The best we can do is take out particularly aggressive animals, such as the one killed by the Parks people in the linked story, and keep enough pressure on them to make them afraid of humans. They need to know that human means danger to them.

My post might have sounded rude, but I get tired of the holier than thou attitudes of, "they are just being what they are," or, "they were here first, we are encroaching on them." The guy in the OP did not kill that 'yote for no reason; he killed it because his father did not want a predator, one that did not fear humans, hanging around the homestead, eating cats and lap dogs, etc. He is not going to hurt the coyote population. In fact, at least in our area, coyotes are, to an extent, self regulating. The Parvo virus runs through the population fairly regularly, and rabies takes its toll.

Two of the most adaptable animals in nature, at least in the Southeast, are Whitetail deer and coyotes. They both have a high potential for becoming a pest, doing much economic damage to agriculture, and, in different ways, becoming dangerous to humans.

 

[elm_creek_smith]

Feral hogs ARE a pestiferous invasive species through most of the "South" all the way into Oklahoma and Texas. I've seen soybean fields destroyed virtually overnight by wild hogs (some over 600 pounds). And hogs are dangerous. Hog Hunting What licenses do I need to hunt hogs?

 

[jlrhiner]

Here in Missouri, no license required. The State has a shoot on sight policy on feral hogs.

 

[Cocked & Locked]

sausage...

This thread is starting to need some pig pictures.


boar

momma sow

another boar

 

[hoc9sw]

Brings to mind something I often forget. I had to get my CC because a distant relative was the sheriff called when I killed a razorback hog that had already taken a chunk of my leg while out on family property. Killed it with .357 HP. Was taken to get the leg patched up, but was also reminded that the old carry permissions were gone, and I needed a permit I did not have to get the pistol back to the car over several intermediate properties. Since the victim was an attacking hog, it was all overlooked, but when I got home, I started my CC paperwork. The next hog will face a .45.

 

[DR505]

This was getting close to my three year old as he was playing soccer. Got him with my Model 67:

http://smith-wessonforum.com/lounge/320474-model-67-saves-3-year-old-boy-fearsome-rattler.html

This was bothering my labs...shot him at 53 yards, from my porch, with my Wilson Combat CQB .45 ACP.

 

[RV4driver]

You may have not noticed that gnat still had wings but wasn't flying because it's head was missing, due to one well place shot with my Remmy 700 in .308 and one of my handloads, from just over 800yds. With iron sights. At night. In the Rain. Blindfolded. Me, not the gnat.
To the best of my memory...

Did I mention the 35kt swirling crosswind?

I remember thinking at the time, "I sure wish there were some witnesses".

 

[redlevel]

Shot this Timber Rattler (Canebrake to some) just a few feet from my back door, and a few yards from the dog pen a few years back. Have posted this several times before, but what the heck. Model 36-1 with CCI snake loads. One to the head did the job. The second shot was just for insurance. I have found that a shot to the head with .22 magnum or .38 sp snake shot stops all that squirming and wiggling.

 

[jlrhiner]

Speaking of gnats, I've always had a live-let live policy. But there was this one time when I was eating bar-b-q that this one odd looking gnat (he had blue eyes) kept stealing pieces of corn from me. I tried using self restraint, but after 4 or 5 kernels, I'd had it. My state had just passed the castle doctrine, so I know longer had the duty to retreat. My carry gun, a Kimber Tactical Ultra CDP in .45 ACP, was riding comfortably above my appendix. As the gnat made his move for kernel #6, I slowly eased my shirt up for a clean draw.

Suddenly, I realized I was at a family bar-b-q. In my family, if one starts shooting, they all start shooting. It could get messy. My EDC knife, an Emerson, was on my off side, unavailable. (My BUG, a S&W Mdl 36, was in an ankle holster I couldn't reach)

As the miscreant turned to make off with kernel #6, I felt a thread pop into my hand as I straightend out my shirt. Wrapping it around my index fingers, I quickly garroted him. Most of the family didn't even notice. Those that did, just wrote it off as typical.

 

[Protected One]

How many shots did it take you? What kind of ammo were you using? Just curious. You "connected" but it wasn't a kill shot? Sounds as if you just wounded it and let it wander off to die.

Just 2 shots (one for each wing) using 115gr Fiochi hard ball.
It wasn't intended to be a kill shot...just wanted the gnat to fall on the flys butt. [The fly whose head Erich shot off]

 

[vigil617]

Shot this Timber Rattler (Canebrake to some) just a few feet from my back door, and a few yards from the dog pen a few years back. Have posted this several times before, but what the heck. Model 36-1 with CCI snake loads. One to the head did the job. The second shot was just for insurance. I have found that a shot to the head with .22 magnum or .38 sp snake shot stops all that squirming and wiggling.

I think I'da had to arrange that pic so the pistol was pointed at the snake's head, and the body was kinda curved around so that its full length could be fully appreciated, and its tail slipped through the trigger guard with the trigger in the "pulled" position. Then I'da had to post a copy of it out in the yard as a warning to all the others.

Nice one, redlevel. For the life of me, though, I can't tell where you shot it -- unless the pistol barrel is covering up the space between the two pieces that were left.

I'm gonna invest in some snake shot for my l'il 22 magnum and start taking some very intentional walks in the woods near my house. Thanks for the inspiration!

P.S. If you don't hear anything else from me, you can assume I wasn't as intentional as I needed to be.

 

[Shorty 45 MK2]

Vigil617, be careful what you shoot as some are protected by law. Not that I've heard about anybody getting written up for shooting one.

Around the "farm" if it's in or near the chicken or goat pins...it might be getting relocated.

 

[vigil617]

Graham, I speak with forked tongue in cheek.

I'm live and let live with snakes, though the poisonous ones need to go away if they are a threat to nearby family members, human or canine. Otherwise, they have nothing to worry about from me.

I didn't know there were any protected serpents around our parts, but if there are any of the poisonous variety, I think I need to have a talk with whoever came up with that wonderful idea.

 

[Jessie]

Coyotes are never a problem...until they show up.
They just look kind of like dogs, but they're not.

 

[Mike McLellan]

Murderers…………………..By the way, Ravens are protected.

 

[Harkrader]

I'm not much interested in shooting varmints, at least none beyond most rodents, maybe a coon. Coyotes do not bother me. I see them every year while backpacking in the mountains. They often come close and occasionally dig into my fire pit after I doze off. They're welcome to what they find.
I do get a deer tag, though always for a long gun. I love hunting upland birds.
BUT:
Every year it seems another long lost body is found washing out of the ground somewhere in WI.

I have a close friend who taught at the Land O' Lakes school on the Michigan border. She called to say a former boyfriend was stalking her. The school did not allow guns on campus and they had good, secure doors, but going between buildings required going outside. It being deep in winter, it got dark around 1630. She also feared he might strike while she was out with another guy. It was rather remote out there. She asked for a gun and I loaned her one.

Best reason to be armed at the cabin is the two-legged predators.

 

[PeterWD]

Coyotes and other dangerous stuff

Just the other day an Eastern Coyote, aka, 1/4 wolf Coyote mix, just smiled at me in the back yard only 15 yards away. I had no pistol. He or she just sauntered off in seeming confidence. Not long ago while hiking in some eastern mountains I surprisingly came upon what seemed like a huge hairy Yeti upon a blind turn and found him right in my face. I pulled out my long barrel .38 but he only growlingly laughed and grabbed the gun out of my hand and bent the barrel in one quick sweep. He threw it down and sauntered off. So much for concealed carry.

 

[Buford57]

Apparently, it's easier to wax poetic about 'yotes when you are from Eastern Washington or Rockford, Ill.
It's not like that out here in the rural west.
I did love to fly into Rockford airport and take part in their breakfast at the terminal in the late '80s, I can't remember the name of the terminal restaurant, but it had misc. doors and windows and various architectural bits from the old buildings in Chicago hanging around. Very historic and dang good breakfast. If you flew in in a small plane, that was your reservation for breakfast.
Noticeable lack of coyotes, though.

Possibly due in part to the efforts of a coyote hunter from a bit south of there who just last week showed me a picture of ~20 'yote carcasses from one night of shooting on an area farm. One waltzed into a Michigan Avenue deli in Chicago a few summers ago and took a nap in the cooler. Now THAT was cute!